


Til Then I Walk Alone

by Stratagem



Series: Everyday Spinning [2]
Category: Dark Angel
Genre: Au of sorts, Gen, random meet-up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-14 22:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11217732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stratagem/pseuds/Stratagem
Summary: “Get in a fight?” she asked, focusing on the bruises and scratches on his face.Alec shrugged. “Nah, I just slammed myself into a wall a few times. I was bored.”Alec runs into Max's 09er sister Jondy at the bar she works at in Seattle.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel, I don't own Jondy and Alec, and it's sad, but I think I'll survive.
> 
> A/N: Set after "Proof of Purchase."

Alec slid the back of his hand over his cheek, smearing some of the blood on his face. How was he supposed to know that when you went to Mike "Little Man" Nelson for the first time that you were supposed to bring a hooker, a wad of cash and someone to vouch for you? And if you didn't have all three things you got your ass handed to you by his hyped-up, muscle-bound, totally-on-serious-illegal-steroids lackeys? Which he had way too many of, by the way. And these lackeys ganged up on you like a pack of half-starved German Shepherds on a piece of meat?

Needless to say, Alec had only had two things. The hooker part had thrown him.

Growling to himself for his own stupid mistake, Alec straightened up and looked at himself in the mirror. His face had been a prime target for abuse, so he had a bloody lip and a cut near his right eye, both of which were distracting from the bruises that were starting to form. His shoulder was aching from being thrown against a wall, and there was a nice place on his leg where one of them had got him with a knife. He hadn't looked this bad since Lydecker had thought it would be a good training exercise to throw him into a sparring match with three wolf-type transhumans last year. Alec had survived intact and had come out on top in the end, but it hadn't exactly been an experience he would want to repeat. At least most of the minor wounds would be gone by the morning this time.

There was a knock on the door, and Alec made a face. After getting out of Mike's warehouse, he had ducked into the first public place he had come to, which happened to be through the back door of a bar near the docks. He had slipped into the bathroom, and as far as he knew, no one had seen him.

The person knocked on the door again. "Hey, anybody in there?"

"Yeah, get lost," Alec said, not in the mood to be civil.

"Shithead," the guy outside snapped and kicked the door, "I need to piss!" Alec ignored him.

Scrubbing roughly at his face with a paper towel, Alec berated himself. He had been stupid to go there without the right intelligence. He had thought that Baxter had told him everything, but now he thought that the little twerp had it out for him, the new guy on the block. From now on, he was following his instincts and doing everything himself, including intel. He should've known better than to trust an Ordinary anyway.

Moron.

After he was satisfied that he wasn't going to get suspicious looks from the Sector cops about his face and that he wouldn't look vulnerable to other gangs, Alec opened the door. A scruffy-looking guy with a bulb nose and a red face pushed past him, nearly shoving Alec into the doorframe.

"You're an asshole, you know that?" the man snarled before slamming the door shut.

There was an old metal and plastic chair set back against the wall in front of the bathrooms. Alec snatched it and jammed it up underneath the outward-swinging door's knob. There, since the guy wanted to get in there so bad, he could stay in there with the backed-up toilet, cockroaches and unidentifiable slime.

Satisfied with his revenge, Alec walked through the bar wearing a neutral expression. One of those regular dockside places with old fishing gear and old barrel tables that played out rock-n-roll music, the place was pretty busy tonight. No one noticed him; he was just another face in the crowd, albeit a better-looking face…

He just wanted to get out of here and curl up in some nice, quiet warm place, maybe a nice hotel or some rich person's apartment that had been vacated for the night. His head was throbbing where it had hit the concrete. Yeah, somewhere to rest would be great.

He was almost out the door when he saw her slip into the kitchen from behind the bar, that familiar smile on her face. He didn't stop, knowing that would look suspicious, but he turned to the side and started looking at the flyers beside the door, seemingly absorbed in the protest fliers and lost-dogs. No way. That couldn't be her. She was out of the country or dead by now. There was no way she was bartending at the docks in Seattle.

Was there?

Alec smoothly moved away from the door and headed back to the bar, his eyes scanning the rest of the room as if he was looking for someone. When he reached the stools, he leaned against the bar and turned his attention to the bartenders. There was one guy working the front, and he was busy taking stock of the liquor behind him. He glanced over his shoulder at Alec.

"What'll it be?"

"Scotch," he replied instantly. How he was going to pay for that Scotch… Maybe there was some money in one of his pockets. And then there was his ability to escape and evade.

The bartender poured him the drink with all the enthusiasm of a technician doling out meds before going back to taking inventory. Alec took an obligatory swig of the Scotch and let it warm him up while he waited for the girl to come back out of the kitchen.

A couple moments later and the door swung open, letting out first a slinky black-haired woman with skinny hips and manufactured breasts before the girl walked out. It took all of his will power to keep from jumping off the stool and pinning her against the wall to make sure there was a barcode on her neck that would end in 211. For now, he settled for staring at her, not entirely believing that Charlie had wound up here, in reach.

Her long honey-blond hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail at the base of her neck, leaving her heart-shaped face exposed and her barcode effectively covered. Her lithe, petite body looked a lot better in that short-shorts and black t-shirt get-up than it did in fatigues, but Charlie was Manticore; she could make anything look good. Most of the girls in Manticore fell into four categories: supermodels, movie stars, exotics or other. Charlie had been one of those in the last category; she wasn't as standardly gorgeous as some of the other females, but she made up for it with other ways. When he had gone through cultural training and been taught cultural references, Alec had decided she looked sort of like an elf, small and angular. Biggs always said she had too much cat in her, which usually got him a scowl from the female X5.

Big, wide dark blue eyes glanced at him before immediately looking away. He didn't know what that meant. Maybe she was putting on a good show for the Ordinaries, not letting on at all that she knew him. That'd be like Charlie. She covered all her bases and didn't leave anything to chance when she could help it.

Then again, there was something in the way she moved, something he didn't know…

A moment later, after she poured some old guy a beer, she turned towards Alec and met his eyes with a stare that was completely unfamiliar to him. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

That was _not_ Charlie.

Sure, they seemed identical, but the look in her eyes wasn't Charlie. At all. Charlie always looked controlled and poised, no matter what, and sort of distant, especially for a medic; re-indoctrination had been almost successful with her since she had gone through it so many times. This woman had entirely different eyes. She seemed curious about him, taking in every detail of his face in nanoseconds. Concern and warmth gleamed in her eyes, emotions Manticore would have tried to stomp out of her years ago. There was caution there too, and he guessed it was the kind you gained after being on the run for ten years because the only person this could possibly be was Charlie's clone. One of the 09ers.

X5-210.

She looked away again and moved out among the tables. He could see that she was making sure to tone down her natural gracefulness by occasionally bumping a table or brushing one of the people, not that anyone would notice. She was a really good faker, but he could see by the way the drinks never even wobbled that she was acting.

Alec drained the rest of his Scotch. Okay, so it had been too good to be true, she wasn't Charlie, but now he had found another Manticore Alum. Too bad it had to be another 09er. He was pretty sure that Max was already pushing the limit for his 09er-interaction, but this girl…she looked just like Charlie. He clenched his hands around the glass, wishing it had been _his_ unitmate instead of Max's that randomly showed up in a bar in Seattle.

Of course he wasn't that lucky.

"Your barcode is showing." Charlie's voice whispered, but it wasn't Charlie's tone. How could people be clones of each other and still sound different? Freaky.

This is why he wore turtlenecks. He stood up, wondering what she was going to say to him. The numbers on his neck had to be significant to her; 493 had been her unitmate and fellow escapee, and if Max's reaction to him had been any signifier, 210 wasn't going to be happy with him.

He didn't know what to expect when he turned around, but her half-smile threw him off-guard. "You're taller than I thought he'd be."

Teasing and bold. Charlie was never like that.

"I'm taking that as a compliment," he responded. He looked down at her, and for once he didn't know what to say. Max had been 453's clone, but he hadn't known Sam as well as he knew Charlie. He shifted from foot to foot and sniffed at the cluttered air. Cigarette smoke, beer, and a hint a lavender coming from 210.

"Hey, can I get a drink?" someone called from a nearby table. 210 ignored them. She seemed to reach toward Alec's face, her eyes narrowed, but she dropped her hand and shook her head.

"Get in a fight?" she asked, focusing on the bruises and the scratches. Introductory small talk was obviously not her style. He sort of liked that.

Alec shrugged. "Nah, I just slammed myself into a wall a few times. I was bored."

"Mhmm," she said, her hands going to her hips, just like Max, but she looked genuinely concerned about the scrapes. "You've got a smart mouth for an army brat."

"Huh, Max said something like that too," he replied, grinning at her, "And you're just as tactful as she is."

That caught her off guard. Her eyes widened, and she stared at him. "Max is alive?" The unharnessed hope in that question made him even more uncomfortable.

"Uh, yeah," Alec said, quirking up an eyebrow at her, "You live in the same city, you should know she's still trying to save the world, one block at a time."

210 stepped back from him, the blood draining from her face. "I didn't…they told me…" She looked down at the floor then jerked her head back up to look at him. "Can you come with me, back to my place? Please, I'll make it worth your time, I promise." She started taking off her apron, hastily pulling at the strings.

"Want to tell me your name first?" he asked, "So I know exactly who I'm going home with?" He was half-amused by the turn of events. First he had been beat up by hyped-up Ordinaries, then he thought he had found someone from his unit, and now Max's sister/Charlie's clone was inviting him to come home with her from a bar after a 30-second conversation.

At least life outside of Manticore was never boring.

"One second," she replied before darting behind the counter and into the back room. A few minutes later, and she returned, relief washing over her face as she found him right where she had left him. She looked up at him again, her eyes confused and searching but still warm. "I'm Jondy."

He nodded and smiled. "I guess you can call me Alec. Sounds better than numbers."


	2. Chapter 2

Jondy took a deep breath as she unlocked the door to her apartment. She was almost surprised when no one hurried out of the extra bedroom to snap a salute or jumped up from the couch to stand at attention. She pulled off her jacket and hung it beside the door, almost missing the noise that she had grown used to greeting her when she came in.

Since the middle of September, Jondy had been harboring a couple X6s, an X9 and a transhuman in her apartment. Something big had happened at Manticore, and they had all escaped; from what she had gathered from the group, Manticore had been blown up, probably to liquidate the place, though that sounded extreme to her.

Jondy had found one of the X6s and the X9 a few days after the incident and then the other two had joined them, making the already tiny apartment very small while not giving Jondy any of the answers she wanted. Jondy had taken the three X-series to a trustworthy friend in Los Angeles earlier this week, but the transhuman had been a more difficult situation. There was just no easy place to send a swan woman with a thirteen foot wingspan, so after thanking Jondy for helping her, Elise had disappeared again, flying off into the foggy Seattle morning.

Alec walked in behind her, and she saw him immediately cased the place. She had done it too many times to not recognize the action herself, even if she didn't appreciate it when it was aimed at her apartment. There wasn't much to case, however. The apartment was a two bedroom deal with an all-purpose room that served as living room, kitchen and dining room. The furniture didn't match, and it was sort of messy; she still hadn't finished cleaning up from her impromptu houseguests.

While he assessed her non-existent valuables, she assessed him again. Tall, probably around six foot, maybe taller, wiry and muscular. Spiky dark blond hair, almost brown. Dark green eyes with brown specks that looked just like Ben's but weren't. Probably as hot as hell when he wasn't sporting cuts and bruises. She'd have to fix him up before he left. He had a casual stance that almost covered up the fact that he was on high alert. Good soldier, good actor. Manticore all the way.

"Nice place," he said, giving an appreciative nod, "How much is the rent?"

"A roast and some side dishes, usually carrots and potatoes," Jondy said truthfully. When Alec looked at her with raised eyebrows, she smiled. "I treat the landlord and his family to dinner every Thursday night, and he leaves me alone for the most part." Alec smirked as if he didn't think that was all she treated him to. She rolled her eyes.

"He's got eleven children, a pregnant wife, and a dog."

"Ah."

She could feel Alec's eyes on her, appraising her in the same way he appraised her stuff as she moved through the apartment. It wasn't a feeling that was new to her. She was used to being stared at by men; being eye candy was part of the job when you worked in bars and pubs and the like. Of course, being profiled by a Manticore soldier was a little different than being slobbered over by a middle-aged businessman while he tried to shove a check into your skirt as you passed by. She wondered what Alec saw when he looked at her. Could have been anything from failure to independence, but whichever, he was free to make his own judgments.

She wasn't even sure what she thought when she looked at him, so maybe he was just as confused as she was.

Jondy sighed and sat down in one of her comfy mismatched chairs, momentarily resting her head in her hands. She had been in Seattle since May, after Krit and Syl had called to tell her that Max and Zack had gone down in the attack on Manticore. KIA, or at least Max was. They weren't sure about Zack. She had told Zack that the attack wasn't a good idea, it didn't sit well with her, but he had a habit of not listening to her advice when it came to sticking it to Manticore.

When she had gotten the news, she had immediately come to Seattle to see if maybe Zack had survived the attack. If he had gotten out, he would come here first; that had been their plan. She had also tried looking for Manticore itself, but the search had been nearly impossible since Zack had refused to give her information about Manticore's location back when they had decided to attack it. Zack knew how much she had wanted to make amends with Max, but he said that it was more important that Jondy stay out of the attack, just in case something happened to him and she needed to take over being the safety net for their brothers and sisters. That was one of her jobs as his SIC. She had to be there when he couldn't be. He had promised she could come after the attack and talk to Max, but...yeah.

When Max had been declared KIA, Jondy had thought she had lost her sister again, and any chance of forgiveness and reconciliation with her. Now it seemed like she was being given a second chance.

She looked up at the man who was a clone of Ben and tried not to think of him as just like that wide-eyed, creative ten-year-old who she had called her brother. It actually wasn't that hard; it had been years since she had seen Ben, and he definitely hadn't looked like that back then. Like usual, she jumped straight into her topic of interest. "So, you know where Max is?"

"Depends. What's in it for me?" Alec asked. He sat down on the couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table. He wore a devilish smirk that she couldn't imagine on Ben's face. "You promised it'd be worth my time."

"What do you need?"

"I've got everything I need," he replied too quickly. Jondy seriously doubted that, but then again, he was an X5 and probably had more experience than the transgenics she had helped so far. Maybe he really didn't need anything from her. He glanced at the bedroom door, and Jondy fought the urge to snap at him. No, she was not having sex with him for information; that was below even her low standards. He turned his attention back to her. "But I could use a place to crash every now and then."

Jondy bit her lip and then nodded, berating herself for jumping to conclusions. "Sure, fine, the spare room's yours when I don't have a roommate."

He grinned at her. "And when you have a roommate?" He leaned back and rested his arms on the back of the couch, like he was claiming territory. "What if I still need a place?" There was innuendo in that question that she didn't want to acknowledge.

Oh, he was a fine specimen of the male race, but she wasn't going there. Right now, her bedroom was off-limits to people she met under an hour ago, but in a few months, when her time of the year rolled around and she lost herself in a wave of ridiculously dangerous pheromones and started raiding her closet for leather pants and low-cut tops… Thanks, Manticore.

"The couch welcomes you wholeheartedly," Jondy said, "And if it isn't open, I'll find you somewhere to stay."

Alec glanced around the place again and then looked back at her. "Is it normal for you to just let random people into your apartment, then invite them to stay whenever they like?"

"You're not exactly random," she replied, and by the expression on his face, she knew she didn't have to explain any further. He was her brother's clone and for all she knew, he might have known someone back at Manticore who looked like her. She had found out from her recent talkative guests (the X6 girl named Yon had been particularly chatty) that clones were common at Manticore and almost all the X5s had them while a lot of the younger generations were clones of the X5s.

Jondy felt like she was going to burst if she didn't get some information soon, but she knew better than to try to drag information out of a Manticore-trained transgenic. They would only shut up and shut down, especially the ones that were experienced. This guy had probably been through extensive S.E.R.E. training back at Manticore. Besides, there were ways of getting information out of people without demanding it outright, so she changed tactics.

Standing up, she walked over to the kitchen and started pulling food out of the refrigerator. "You hungry?" She still hadn't finished stocking up, but there was stuff for sandwiches at least. "I'm guessing you can talk and eat, and I don't like for company to starve."

Alec turned around, smirking. She was starting to think that was his natural expression. "Yeah, what've you got?"

She held up a loaf of bread. "Sandwiches. Meat or PB&J, your choice." She pulled out a jar of mayonnaise and set it on the counter. "I'd offer you a grilled cheese, but the market's still down on dairy products."

"I know a guy who's got dairy stuff," Alec said as he stood up, smooth with every movement, "I could swing some for you."

Jondy smirked back, mimicking his expression, as she set the rest of the fixings out on the table. "And you'll let me have it for twice what you bought it for?" By the way he had negotiated being able to stay whenever he felt like it, she could tell he was into making deals and liked getting as much as he could out of them.

He picked up an apple from the bowl in the middle of her kitchen counter and tossed it from hand to hand. "How about I give it to you at a discount price?"

"How about I get my own dairy products?" Jondy replied with a grin as she pulled a butter knife out of the drawer. She pointed at the jars and bottles she had lined up on the counter. "What'll it be?"

"Turkey, ham, and, oh, yeah, some of that chicken."

"Let's put some lettuce in there, carnivore," she said, picking up the head of lettuce that she had managed to find at the grocery down the street.

"What're you, a dietitian?" He rolled the apple around the counter like a kid playing with a toy.

"Nope," Jondy replied, suppressing a smile. However, two years sitting in on classes at a medical school and another working as an emergency medic had given her some idea of what should go into a body and what shouldn't.

After she had plucked off a couple leafs and put the lettuce back in the fridge, she held up the mayonnaise jar. He gave it a skeptical look.

"It's mayonnaise," Jondy said.

"And that would be…"

"You probably don't want to know, actually, but it's good on sandwiches." Mayonnaise wasn't exactly a staple part of Manticore's carefully constructed and maintained diet, but she thought he would enjoy it. She wasn't particularly fond of it herself since her first experience with it had been an attempt to eat it straight from the jar…

Without further permission, she started spreading mayonnaise onto the slices of bread. "So, what do you know about Max?"

"Well, she's in love with an Ordinary who's currently fatally allergic to her, and she has a Nomalie for a pet," he said, leaning forward and setting the apple back in the bowl, "She got Manticore blown up, she thinks Fixit is a good name for a person, and, I'm not sure on this last one, but I think she hates every atom of my being."

Jondy slowly lowered the knife back into the mayonnaise jar. She had known about Max's Ordinary from Zack; he had been pretty annoyed about the whole thing, which was understandable since he had been secretly in love with Max since they were kids. After leaving Seattle, he had stopped by her apartment and silently stomped around for a good two hours before grunting out everything about Max and her new life in Seattle over a plate of teriyaki chicken and fried rice.

The rest of it was news to her.

Jondy looked at Alec who was now examining the back of the mayonnaise jar. "Okay, you know, let's start at the beginning."

 


	3. Chapter 3

While Jondy kept him supplied with sandwiches (he ate three), Alec told her about his experiences with Max. He didn't hold anything back, not even how he had betrayed Max's trust in the beginning (on order), and then how he had almost killed Max that night about a week ago. What would be the point? Jondy would find out anyway when she actually talked to Max and then she would hate him just like Max did. At least by telling everything now, she could be initially pissed and he wouldn't have to deal with her feeling betrayed and lied to. Besides, she seemed to be blunt and direct about everything, so he might as well return the favor.

As he talked, Jondy kept moving, as if being active was helping her process everything. Once in a while she would ask a question when he went quiet, but for the most part she just let him talk without commenting. He didn't let his guard down, so the conversation didn't drift away from Max, but he got the feeling that Jondy was used to being the listener while other people talked. But Jondy was just going to end up hating him. Alec knew better than to start liking someone that Max was connected with; so far, they had all ended up hating him.

When he finished talking, he braced himself for the attack. Maybe she would just stab the butter knife through his shoulder and tell him to get lost as revenge.

Instead, Jondy moved back toward the fridge and pulled open the freezer. A moment later, she handed him a plastic bag full of ice. "Here, your face is hurting me."

Alec eyed the bag, wondering if the ice was somehow going to melt his face off. It was impossible that she would be nice to him after he oh-so-casually mentioned that he had been _this close_ to killing Max, her beloved, darling 09er sister.

She shoved the bag at him again. "Come on. Do you really want to go around with a puffy face?" She smirked. "It'll ruin your chances to devastate unsuspecting women with your dashing good looks."

"Girls are into the rough look," he replied, "Especially when you add 'You should see the other guy.' They love that."

"Or they think you're just another testosterone-driven male, one who was slow enough with his punches to get a black eye." She jiggled the bag, and a couple of cold water droplets fell to the counter.

"Hey, okay, those guys weren't regular toadies," Alec replied, "They were amped up on something. Steroids. Energy drinks. It was crazy, whatever it was." Even as he protested, he took the ice bag from her and gingerly pressed it against his face. Cold, cold, cold…it felt good though. He eyed Jondy as she turned around and started rummaging through one of the cabinets over the counter near the sink. "So…"

She put a big plastic container down on the counter and popped open the clasps. "So, what?"

"What're you doing?" he asked, his eyebrows rising. He wondered if she was going to pull a handgun out of there and unload a clip into him. She had to be sort of pissed at him, didn't she?

"I was going to patch you up, if you'll let me," she said as she lifted the top off the container. It was neatly arranged and filled with all sorts of medical supplies, her own personal MASH-in-a-box. She smiled as she picked up a roll of gauze, some medical tape and a tube of some kind of medication. "Sorry, but I can't just let you walk out of here looking like someone's battered spouse."

"And we're assuming a woman could beat me up?" he asked.

"Well, depends on which way you swing, but yeah, most likely a wife." Jondy snorted. "But let's not get into that argument right now." She walked around the side of the kitchen bar and stood beside him. "Hands out."

He found himself obeying her with only a moment's hesitation; it was pretty much like getting a similar order from Charlie, and he never had been able to say no to his unit's petite, quiet medic. Jondy didn't seem very quiet though. He stuck his hands out on the counter, bloody knuckles up. Jondy went to work, washing the wounds with a disinfectant wipe that stung, but he wasn't going to make any comments about it. Now that she was so close, he caught her scent; it was soft, like Charlie's, but overlaid with the smell of lavender. It was probably a body wash or shampoo or something, but it smelled good, and Alec approved.

"Are you a medic or something?" he asked as he watched her work.

"Yeah," she replied, her focus obviously on the task at hand. "Bartending used to be a secondary job. I was an emergency medic in Los Angeles for a year." She glanced up at him for a second and smirked. "Couldn't find a medic position in Seattle, so I took some bar jobs."

"That's weird."

"Not really," Jondy replied, unfazed as she unscrewed the lid to the tube and started dabbing some kind of gel onto his knuckles, "I'm really good at mixing drinks and doing the juggling tricks."

"No, I mean you being a medic," Alec said, "That's what Charlie did."

Jondy focused on his hands, this time wrapping them with thin, white bandages. A couple quiet moments passed by before she asked the question. "Is Charlie my clone?"

"Yeah," Alec said, "We were in the same unit."

"Small world," Jondy said softly. She taped the edges of the bandages down with small pieces of medical tape, her actions quick but gentle.

He put the ice pack down as she moved on to the cuts on his face, completely invading his personal bubble. The lavender scent whiffed from her hair and brushed across his nose, and he was sure it was going to linger on him when he left.

"You really don't know where Max lives?" Jondy asked. She was carefully brushing an antiseptic wipe over the cut near his right eye. "Sorry if this stings."

"I've had worse," Alec said, trying not to let his mind wander back to all those worse times. He held himself perfectly still as Jondy worked. "I know where her boyfriend and the Dog-man live, but I didn't trail Max." He now regretted that he hadn't thought ahead. Maybe he could have kept Jondy from hating him completely if he had known where Max lived. Damn. There went a connection that might have actually been useful. Now he was going to miss out on being able to go into the bars she worked at and demanding the discount price for knowing her. "I guess the family reunion will have to wait."

Jondy patted down the bandage that she had just put on the wound near his eye. "Guess so," she sighed. She tossed the leftover gauze and tape back into her heavy duty first aid kit and closed it before she looked back up at him. "Where are you staying besides here?"

Alec gave her a careless grin. "Around," he replied, swinging himself off the kitchen stool he had been sitting on. "I have other places."

Jondy put a hand on her hip and gave him a stare that was identical to Charlie's when she knew he was lying about a wound. "Uh-huh."

Alec shrugged. He didn't owe her any more information, especially about his lack of living arrangements. "Believe it or not, I can provide for myself."

She looked at him hard before grabbing the first aid kit off the counter and started to put it back in the cabinet she had pulled it from. He noticed that the upper shelves of all the top cabinets were empty; Jondy was too short to reach them, so she hadn't bothered to put anything up there. While she put the first aid kit away, he walked into the living room. Jondy hadn't killed him yet. She hadn't even gotten angry or acted like she was hiding her anger. She was just…going with it. No way.

"Hey," he said as she shut the cabinet door, "When does the explosion come?"

"What explosion?" Jondy asked. She walked past him and opened the door to one of the bedrooms. It didn't look very lived in; there was a neatly-made double bed, a dresser, and an arm chair jammed into the small, clean space. Standing in the doorway, she glanced back at him and then looked at the room again. "Do you need a permanent place to stay?"

He stared at her, not knowing whether to be offended or amused. "I'm not a charity case, and when are you going to let me have it?" Alec asked. He'd rather be blunt about it then skirt around the issue. "I was going to kill Max, I made her life hell."

"Yeah, but from what you said, she's still alive and trying to make a difference," Jondy said, "And I know you're not a charity case. You're going to pay rent, smartass." She slipped into the room, which forced him to follow in after her. "It's not much, but it's a place to sleep, and I wouldn't mind having someone to help me with those huge dinners. They're not exactly cheap."

She started to walk back out, muttering something about the outrageous price of roast beef, and Alec blocked her way, both hands on the doorframe. He was more than a head taller than her, so becoming a living wall wasn't hard. She stopped short of running into his chest and looked straight up at him. He couldn't read the look in her eyes, but it wasn't accusing or pissed.

"I was going to kill her."

"But you didn't," she replied, her gaze suddenly intense, "You didn't, and that's more than…" She shook her head viciously and tore her eyes away from him. "Look," she said in the direction of the floor, "Just trust me when I say that while I don't like what you did, I understand why you were going to do it. I'm not going to condemn you because of it." She lifted her head and gave a short sigh before poking him in the chest. "Move."

Too surprised to do anything else, he stepped out of her way and watched as she went out into the living room. He didn't understand what that had been about, but he wasn't going to try to dig it out of her. Jondy was…something else. And he sort of liked it.

"If you want, you can take the spare room," Jondy said, "But you're going to have pay rent, and on top of that, I want you to help me find Max."

"Is that all?" Alec asked, leaning back against the door frame. He gave a slow, dangerous smile, testing her. "Anything else you need?"

Jondy rolled her eyes. "Even though you're hot and all, I have a no sex with roommates policy," she said, replying with a smirk attached, "So, no, that'll be all."

Alec snickered and glanced back towards the bedroom. "How bad's the rent?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Do you know how to cook?"

"Not really," he said truthfully, "Never really came up in Manticore."

"Well, then, the rent will require your slaving over a stove that you don't know how to work," she said, flashing him a half-smile. "I think you'll catch on quick though."

"Finding Max might take a while." Technically, it shouldn't, but he was going to keep that information to himself for now.

"I know, but at least we have somewhere to start. We'll manage."

A moment of silence passed between them while Alec weighed the pros and cons. This was better than most of the places he had been crashing in recently, and definitely much more stable. Besides, his prospective roommate wasn't half bad…and she wasn't half bad-looking…

"When can I move in?"

Jondy shrugged. "Whenever you'd like."

Alec nodded and pulled off his jacket. He walked over to the open door of the spare bedroom and threw it over onto the bed. He tossed a grin to Jondy. "There. I'm unpacked."

"Welcome home, then," Jondy said as she wandered back into the kitchen, probably going to finish cleaning up from the meal.

Well, tonight had turned out much better than Alec had been expecting. A meal, a room, and maybe something he didn't quite understand yet. He smirked to himself as he watched Jondy working in the kitchen.

He'd have to properly thank Nelson's lackeys next time he saw them. After he taught them not to underestimate an X5, of course.


End file.
